The crowd is going wild at Takamura’s victory over Brian Hawk; Takamura, exhausted, is sitting on the floor in the corner in disbelief. Takamura turns around and calls for the coach, but gets tackled by his enthusiastic gym mates instead. While everyone’s hugging Takamura, Takamura asks for the coach and he appears in front of Takamura and offers him a hand. The coach compliments Takamura’s performance and Takamura gets up; as Takamura gets up his knees buckle, but the coach catches him. The coach shakes a little and tells Takamura he’s done really great. Behind them Itagaki, Yagi, Kimura, Aoki, and Ippo are fighting over who gets to hand the belt to Takamura. Takamura tells them to cut it out, but Ippo and Yagi are both holding the belt with Ippo saying he wanted to hand Takamura the belt and Yagi saying he didn’t want to give up the responsibility of doing it. It is the coach that puts the belt on Takamura, and belt is officially on the new champion. The crowd cheers and Aoki carries Takamura on his shoulders. The microphone is handed to Takamura so he can make a speech, but Takamura expresses his surprise as he felt that winning the belt was an obvious thing. The crowd starts yelling that he should be proud because he’s their hero, and that he was really cool. Takamura yells out that he understands their feelings and yells out for women to come to him, and he’ll give them his sperm so in 20 years the country will be filled with Takamuras. The crowd immediately falls silent; the crowd then turns on Takamura, throwing bottles and other items item and yelling that he’s no different from Hawk.

After the crowd has left, the coach is lecturing Takamura in the locker room for his inappropriate words. Takamura apologizes and asks if they can call it a day since he wants to go home to rest. The coach reluctantly agrees and tells Takamura to head straight home. While walking away alone from the hall, Ippo thinks about the fight and how amazing it was and congratulates Takamura to himself. When Ippo gets home, he’s shocked to find Takamura on TV; it seems he went on a few programs after the fight to talk about it. The next day at the gym, a huge package, addressed to Takamura, is delivered; Aoki opens up the box and they find a large bronze statue of Takamura inside. Aoki tries to move the statue, but accidentally ends up breaking off the left arm. Aoki starts panicking and asks Kimura to come with him to apologize; to which Kimura flat out refuses, in fear of Takamura’s reaction. Everyone here’s Takamura outside and Aoki starts running around desperately. Takamura comes in, and Ippo asks him why he’s wearing sunglasses; Takamura replies that he’s trying to keep a low profile since people have been asking for an autograph everywhere he goes. Ippo points out to him that it’s probably because he’s wearing his World Championship belt on him. Takamura is ecstatic to see his package in, and voices his anticipation of it. As Takamura talks about the statue, Aoki starts sweating; Takamura notices Aoki next to the statue holding the left arm up to the statue, unaware it’s broken off, and comments that Aoki’s taken a liking to it as well. Takamura apparently used up his prize money to make the statue and 300 mini statues using an original custom mold which cost 30,000 yen each; the reason being that Takamura wanted take advantage of his current popularity. Aoki objects to charging 30,000 yen as he asks Takamura to think of the customers’ situation; it’s hard to want something you can’t afford. While Aoki is trying to get Takamura to lower the price, Takamura finally notices the broken arm that Aoki’s holding onto. Aoki panics and starts running while begging Takamura not to kill him. Takamura calmly says it can’t be helped, and as the world champion he can’t lose his temper over something so small. The next day at the gym Ippo notices that Aoki isn’t there and asks where he is. Kimura reveals to him that Takamura had him go around the country to small the mini Takamura statues, and not to take anything less than 50,000 yen for them.

The next day everyone’s at Itagaki’s match; Itagaki is doing well and dodging all his opponent’s hits. Eventually Itagaki ends it with a one-round KO. Ippo walks with Itagaki after the match; apparently Itagaki was told to invite everyone at the gym to his house since his family is celebrating, but their house is small so Itagaki just invited Ippo. When they get to Itagaki’s house, Ippo notes that Itagaki’s house is worse than his house. Itagaki’s sister Nanako comes out to greets them, and Ippo notes that Itagaki’s sister is cute. Itagaki’s mother comes out to invite them in. Ippo notes that Itagaki’s family seems happy and funny; Itagaki’s dad comes home and Ippo notes that he seems to have an air of authority about him. Throughout the dinner Ippo is dumbfounded at Itagaki’s family, since they’ve been constantly making bad puns since dinner started. Ippo tries to steer the conversation in a different direction, but it’s no use as the father seems rather experienced (maybe even genius?) at making puns. Ippo starts getting worn out from Itagaki’s family and makes one final attempt at changing the flow of the conversation and grabs a crab claw and makes a pun asking if he can have it (using kani=crab and ikani=can I). Itagaki’s father slaps Ippo on the back in approval and says he’s taken a step forward (ippo=first step), and the night continues in the trend. The next day at the gym, Ippo talks to Kimura and Aoki about Itagaki’s; Kimura notes that regardless whether it’s funny or not, it may be the ultimate joke. Takamura comes in at the mention of “ultimate” and tells them regardless of what their talking about, words like “ultimate” are reserved for him and he won’t forgive that family. Takamura makes a joke while picking up a glove and says “Glo-” and completes the word by farting (he says glo and the sound effect for farts are bu, so bu=vu so glo-vu=glove). Ippo notes that Takamura’s on the same level and Kimura comments it may be a good match.

That night, Takamura waits for Itagaki’s father on the street and meets him and grabs his dick and makes a pun saying dick itches so much he can’t stand it (chinpou=dick, and shinbou=can’t stand it), and Itagaki’s father comes back grabbing his own testicle and makes a pun saying we can’t have that (tama=testicle, and tamaran=can’t have that). The two smirk at each other. Later Takamura returns to the gym while grabbing his ribs, saying that it was so funny his sides hurt. Kimura comments that Takamura must have lost, and Ippo comments it must’ve been the bald joke since it has a lot of destructive power. Takamura tells them he made it past that, what got him was when Itagaki’s father took off his wig and handed it to Takamura and told him he won (Katsu=win, Katsura=wig), and it appears that Itagaki’s dad has taken Takamura in as a disciple.

Opinions:

Well they through 2 to 2.5 chapters this episode. I think that Itagaki’s family is well “unique”, the dad definitely seems like Takamura in terms of humor and obviously Takamura agrees if he became his disciple. The episode marks the first appearance of the iconic Takamura statue, and I’ve always wondered how they got the arm back on; I’m a little disappointed that Aoki made an immediate return after Takamura had him go out to sell the Takamura statues. The reason being that in the manga, this leads to a flashback story of the coach, and it’s really good. I suppose it can’t be helped because the first season of New Challenger is slated for 26 episodes; though it has been green lit for more episodes, it’s iffy if they’ll get to the coach’s story. I’m assuming the next story arc we’re looking at is Ippo’s next title defense match. Oh yeah, this episode also features the first appearance of Itagaki’s sister, and her crush on Ippo. She’ll be a pain in Kumi’s side for many episodes to come. On a side note, I was wondering if they were ever going to make a Takamura statue PVC or something since it just seems like it would sell. Am I wrong?